F1 2014

Layoffs have hit UK racing game developer Codemasters, sources close to the studio tell Eurogamer.

The Evil Within and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel have arrived in the UK all-formats chart in second and third places, respectively.

There's a great review of Midway's half-arsed Olympic Hockey Nagano '98 from the very early days of IGN, a scathing 0.0 score delivered with a pithy, one-sentence summary: "We'll post a new review when Midway releases a new game."

It's always tempting to go the same route when presented with the latest iteration in an ongoing sports franchise, and it's a perennial problem for many series where innovation must be seen to be done to justify another annual instalment. FIFA's endless tinkering has been known to spoil an otherwise excellent formula - as seems to be the case this year - while poor Codemasters doesn't quite have the means to do even that. F1 2014 isn't just last year's game prettied up with a selection of season-specific skins, it's actually significantly less than last year's offering, with the classic cars that bolstered F1 2013 dropped entirely. It's also only available on last-gen consoles and PC.

What you're getting here, then, is a selection of new car models, a couple of new tracks - the Red Bull Ring that returned to the calendar this season, a short track that takes in the glorious inclines of the Austrian countryside, as well as the Sochi Autodrom whose superb off-camber turn 3 couldn't make up for a thunderously dull debut for the Russian Grand Prix this weekend past - and... there's very little else. When an entirely inconsequential one-lap tutorial is being touted on the back of the box as a standout new feature, you know it's slim pickings. 

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Codemasters has announced that this year's F1 game won't be coming to current-gen consoles, with F1 2014's release limited to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC - although an Xbox One and PlayStation 4 F1 game will release early next year to complement the 2015 season.